【推荐1】Last week, I had a wisdom tooth (智齿) pulled, leaving me swollen and unable to speak. It was very strange spending a few days in this _______ but judging from other people’s responses, not as strange as it was for them.

I thought my husband would be the first to feel upset. I tried to imagine how _______ it must be to have half of the house go silent. _______, when I found him in the kitchen at midnight, cooking potatoes for my _______ and singing “your lovely swollen face” to the tune of My Humps, I was surprised but also _______.

Later, I went to my local shop. It still _______ when I moved my face, so when I _______ a friend, I couldn’t say anything. The friend wanted my _______ on a Twitter disagreement. I didn’t seem bothered and it felt good to remember that.

Soon after, I visited my mom, who chatted away normally. She didn’t even _______ my silence, making me certainly believe that my family role is part ________, part listener.

People say ________ is golden and that sometimes it is wise to say nothing and to let people reveal themselves. Perhaps that is the ________ of the wisdom tooth. Maybe when they arrive with pain, forcing us — even just for a while — to move our ________ a little less, they give a lesson for living well: Listen, ________ and try being quiet now and then. Then maybe adulthood won’t be quite like ________ teeth.

【推荐2】In England, there is a nice cottage(小木屋) with a large garden where lives an old man. The_______where bees and butterflies_______and gorgeous flowers bloom(开花) year around is so well-tended that every passer-by cannot but stop for a_______.

One day a young painter_______this garden and he was totally lost in admiration at its beauty,_______how happy he could be if he lived in such a_______place. Then, suddenly he found the old gardener was blind(瞎的)._______, the painter_______that old man, asking “why are you busy_______these flowers which you can’t see as a matter of fact?” The blind gardener said________, “I can tell you four reasons. First, I was a gardener when I was young, and I really like this job. Second,________I can’t see these flowers, I can touch them. Third, I can________the sweetness of them. As to the last one, that’s you.”

“Me?________you don’t know me.” responded the painter.

“Yeah. But I know flowers are angels which everyone knows and would________turn them down. People who love life would stop by and this________prospect(景色) would have their eyes________and hearts pleased. Meanwhile, it also gives a________to me to have a word with you here.”

Actually, the blind man________flowers in his heart. Failing the________of the beauty of blossoming(开花), he surely can________the voice of it, I suppose.

【推荐1】When I was 24, I moved into an apartment and the couple next door were loud all the time. After putting up with it for a couple of weeks, I decided to ________ them and politely ask them to be ________ after noon, as I had to work at midnight, so I ________ went to bed around noon.

I went next door and knocked on the door and an old woman answered.I ________myself and she asked if I came over to complain about the ________, and I said yes. She________ both she and her husband were going ________ and that they needed to speak loudly to hear each other, She invited me in and ________ me a coffee and we started talking. ________, we heard a loud bang (巨响) in the kitchen. Then we found her husband had fallen onto the ground. Immediately, we ________ him to to hospital.

When I came home from work the next day, there was a ________ on the door from the lady asking me to come over. When I reached her ________, she asked if I'd drive her to the hospital, to which I said no ________. When we got to the hospital, I followed her to her husband's room, where he ________ me. Soon I ended up being friends with this couple ________ they moved away a year later.

One day after ten years, I got a ________ from a lawyer. I was ________ what was going on, so I went down and when I arrived at his office, the lawyer asked me knew a ________ by the couple's names and I said yes. He told me that the couple had died and he was employed by their children to find me. They wanted to thank me ________. I met the family and then we became friends! You can never know when, where or how you are next going to make new friends. Life is full of ________ . Whatever happens, try to treat others exactly as you would like to be treated.

【推荐2】Mark liked talking. I had to   ____ him that talking in class was not acceptable. ____ impressed me was that he responded with such sincerity. “Thank you for correcting me, Sister!” I didn’t know what to make of it at ____ , but soon I got used to ____ it many times a day.

One morning my ____ was growing thin when Mark talked once again. I said, “If you say one more word, I’ll tape your mouth ____ !”

It wasn’t ten seconds ____ when one boy shouted, “Mark is talking again.” I had to keep my ____ . I took out some tape from my desk and covered it ____ Mark’s mouth. Later as I walked back to remove the tape, his first words were “Thank you for correcting me, Sister.”

One afternoon, the students got noisy and started to call each other ____ .

I had to do ____ . I asked each student to prepare 34 small pieces of paper, saying they should write the name of a classmate on each piece and, under that, say something   ____ about the person. Then I collected the slips of paper and gave them ____ later. Everyone smiled. Their classmates had ____ such nice things about them!

Nobody ever mentioned the paper again. I never knew if they discussed them after class, but it didn’t matter. The students were ____ with themselves.

Several years later, after I had returned ____ a vacation, my parents met me at the airport. On our way back, my father ____ his throat, as he usually did before saying something ____ .

“The Eklunds called yesterday,” he began. “Really?” I said. “I haven’t heard from them in years. I ____ how Mark is.” Dad responded quietly. “Mark was killed in Vietnam,” he said. “The funeral is tomorrow .”

At the funeral Mark’s father came up and took some slips of paper from his wallet to show me. I knew the slips were the ones on which Mark’s classmates had listed all the nice things about him.

“Thank you so much,” Mark’s mother said. “____ you can see, Mark treasured those pieces of paper.”

【推荐3】There was once a young couple who lived very happily together. The only thing they worried about was ______ their happiness would last forever.

An old man told them, “______ around the world and look for a happy ______. Ask them for a piece of cloth _______ the man’s shirt. Then you will stay _______.”They began their journey to _______ the happiest couple. Whenever they heard about a happy couple, they would ask them, “Are you the happiest couple?”

They replied, “Yes, we are happy in ______ way except that we don’t have any children.” Actually they were not the happiest so the couple _______ their journey. They met another couple in a city. ______ they were happy, they had lots of children, which made them uncomfortable. This couple didn’t ______ like the happiest, either. They continued traveling to many different places ______ they just couldn’t find what they were ______.

One day they met a shepherd (牧羊人). His ______ was looking after a crying child. The young couple asked them the same question. They ______, “Everybody is happier than the king.” The young couple immediately ______ that they were the happiest couple and asked for a piece of cloth from the shepherd’s ______. The shepherd said, “If I give you the cloth then I will be ______ without any clothes because I only have one shirt.”

They then ______ that it was difficult to find perfect happiness. The wife then said, “It’s important to ______ two things if we want to be happy. First, we should be ______ with whatever we have. And second, we must always be patient.”

【推荐2】Iarossi is a 10-year-old softball player from Tampa, FL. She was tired of having her practices canceled because of an _________ between girls and boys sports. Her community has many baseball fields but only one softball field. When baseball teams need more _________, they will often take up the softball field, _________ her team’s practice.

Iarossi said the effect wasn’t just _________. “Many of my teammates seemed less _________. They felt discouraged from continuing and therefore some _________. They thought they didn’t get the practice and thus _________ to be as good.” To change that, she decided to send a _________ to the mayor. “I said it’s not the 1800s anymore, and girls would like to play sports too. Please give girls and boys sports an equal _________,” Iarossi said. “I hope all girls get __________ to softball. It’s just fair for all in sports.”

Her initial goal was to __________ support for the cause, but it did much more. Her action __________ the city’s government to construct multi-use fields __________ for both girls softball and boys baseball teams. Iarossi’s mom said, “ __________, to write to the mayor was all my daughter’s __________ — no one told her to. I feel proud of her __________ to turn to the mayor as a little child and excited by the __________ from the authorities. It is really __________ to see there are other people who __________ this and help enable all of our children to __________ this wonderful game.”

【推荐3】As a businesswoman, I care deeply about my customers. But like anyone for whom you feel affection, _________ can also drive you mad. They’ll come rushing in, _________ their handbag’s been stolen. They’ll _________ that they left it in the changing room, create chaos （混乱）and then _________ it had been in their car all the time. I do know how upset the shop staff can get, but I try to persuade them to keep _________.

I remember the first really _________ customer we had at Covent Garden. She was _________ absolutely everything, nothing was right and I was rather surprised that she became a “regular”. After a while, she _________ for the way she behaved at the beginning. She had split up with her husband the week before, was living in a flat by herself, and since she’d found it too much to cope with（应对）, she’d taken it out on other people.

That taught me a valuable _________ and I pass it on to the people who ____________ in the market. Don’t take it ____________. If a customer is rude or difficult, just think "Maybe she’s had a row with her husband. Maybe her child’s not __________.” Always water it down and don’t let your ego（自我）get ____________. If you do, you won’ be able to __________ it and the whole thing develops into an unpleasant scene and that ____________everyone’s day.